8 Ways to Fill Up Those Empty Pockets

Let’s face it, all of us that do weekly pocket spreads to document our everyday life have a week occasionally where it seems there’s just too much week and not enough photos. I’ve looked through my own albums and in some of the digi galleries out there and wanted to offer a few tips on how to fill up those empty pockets.

1 – Bigger is better

Have a stunning photo? Blow it up BIG! Use a template with large photo spots, bigger photos = fewer photos. Or if you can’t really enlarge your photos for quality’s sake, you could fill the large spots with paper, a cute photo and an attention grabbing frame to make the most of a larger photo spot.

2 – YOUR stock photos

Take some “stock photos” of your own around the house. Examples: inside your pantry, inside your refrigerator, the contents of your purse next to the purse you are carrying, the beauty products under your bathroom counter, the makeup you are wearing right now, your kids room, the contents of your cart at the grocery store, the shelves in your pantry, the things your children sleep with, shoes lined up at the door, a peek into their school backpack. All of these things change more rapidly than you might guess. You’ll look back later and recall the time your picky eater ONLY ate ______ and ______ . I wish that I had a photo of what my purse used to look like back when it was filled with pacifiers, Disney figurines and Lego people. And I KNOW that I’d love to see what these little details were like when I was a child.

3 – Lists, lists, lists

The last five books you read, the top five most played songs on your playlist (or someone in the family), the last five shows in your Netflix queue, the movies that your little children have on repeat, etc. You could also use an internet image or snap a quick cell phone picture to add it to the lists. I’ll often send my kids a text “Tell me five things you’ve read this week” letting them think outside the box. It’s amazing the fun things you’ll get back. Have you been “binge watching” a show recently? Talk about it and why you love it so much.

4 – Facebook is good for something

You know all those cute little Facebook memes and quotes that make you smile or even laugh out loud? You could print out a few of them and have them on hand to fill an extra pocket or two.

Are your kids on Facebook? Mine are in college and Facebook is a little peek into their lives away from home. If I see something they shared or are tagged in that I think they would like to be able to remember later, I screenshot it and save it to go in our album.

5 – Bits of life

Ticket stubs, dry cleaning receipts, post it notes and to-do lists, those pieces of paper you carry around in your purse and then toss. They represent a slice of your life right now. Who knows how long some of these things will even exist in paper form? Everything seems to be going toward the electronic version these days. This past summer I carried a dorm shopping checklist around in my purse for a month. THAT certainly made it into my album!

6 – Break out that electronic cutter

For those of us that do a little hybrid or paper, adding a tactile element cut from your electronic cutting machine is definitely a way to add visual interest. The next time you are cutting out something for a specific need, fill up the paper, or maybe do a few, with a couple of extra elements or word arts. Then you’ll have several spares when you are looking for a quick something to fill up a spread.

7 – Texts or screenshots

Often people comment that they like that I include screenshots of text conversations on my pocket layouts. With kids or family that doesn’t live at home with you, texting has become one of the main modes of conversation. Taking a screenshot ensures that you’ll remember that special part of the conversation later. For me, it also ensures that it is captured WITH my photos for the week on which I am working. I always think I’ll remember the little details when I scrap later but often that small memory is replaced with a newer one.

8 – Add a little art or schoolwork

Goodness knows that school aged children have backpacks and folders filled with their artistic treasures. You can always include letter sized insert pages for the ones you just can’t part with but snapping a quick phone photo will let you include it in your memories without saving every little precious work of art in its original paper form. Some projects are just too big to include in your albums but a photo with your child holding it up makes two memories.

My own daughter is graduating with her Master’s Degree TODAY. I’ve included several of her essays and Power Point presentations over the past several months as a photo or graphic on weekly spreads or in insert pages on our albums. They might disappear from her computer after a while but years from now she’ll be able to find a copy here with me.

I hope you might find a helpful little tidbit here to fill up a pocket or two. Have a tip of your own to add to my list? Please leave a comment below… and we’ll all thank you!

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